Operationalising European Integrated Border Management - a Shared Responsibility

• Author: Frontex (EU body or agency)
• Pages: 22-86

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Operationalising European

Integrated Border Management

–aShared Responsibility

Operational Outlook and Risk Analysis

fortheComingYears

Acknowledgi ng the large numbe r of possible event s that can have a profound

and unpredict able impact a t the EU’s exte rnal borders , there are a numbe r of

trends that can be observed¹⁹. It is likely that the pressure at the southern part

of the exter nal borders of t he EU will continue ov er the years to come d ue to

the many migran ts still stranded in L ibya as well as due to the gener al political,

environmental, demographic and economic challenges in this particular region.

Inthis context t he increase in the numb er of citizens of countrie s in Western Africa

on the move along t he Western Mediterr anean route could imply a n even larger

pressure in the coming years. Therefore, the pressure on border surveillance in

the Mediter ranean – with all of the rel ated aspects of bo rder surveillance inth e

maritime dom ain – could increase.

Although at th e eastern ex ternal land bo rder the situati on can currentl y be

assessed a s calm – compared w ith the above – the b order situation c an still

change rapidly due to unpredictable political developments in the neighbouring

countries, r esulting, among other t hings, from the increas ed presence of hybrid

threats.

Fully acknowled ging the positive ee cts of visa libera lisation on people-to -people

contacts , it neverthele ss also needs to be tak en into account that the num bers of

migrants claiming to be citizens of visa-liberalized countries detected for illegal

border crossin gs and fraudulent use of d ocuments will mos t likely continue to ris e.

It is also ex pected that an i ncreasing numb er of migrants f rom North Afr ica and

the Mi ddle E ast wil l conti nue to t ransit via the air- and/or land bo rder at tempt ing

to cross irregul arly the border into the EU.

19 FRONTEX Ri sk Analysis for 2 018, ISBN 978-9 2-9471-0 99-4

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        

At the same time , there is also an impor tant modus operan di of migrants enter ing

the EU by using legal ro utes, eithe r on the basis of vis a-free regimes or w ith

a short-term visa , and becoming illeg al by overstayi ng their short t erm stay.

Meas ures wi thin th e f‌ield o f risk a nalyse s and ri sk prof‌i les, in format ion exc hange

between th e Agency and MS/SAC and coo peration within EB CG, should be furt her

improved to facilitate MS/SAC in decision-making process during border checks.

In general, the f‌l ow of persons in vu lnerable situat ions, including w omen and

children, vic tims of tracking of hu man beings – THB and thos e f‌leeing conf‌licts

and wars and se eking international prote ction is likely to rise.

Also the ove rall in creas e in glo bal mob ility will re sult in increa sing f‌l ows of p erson s

across the EU ’s external b orders. Travel by air w ill become more comp lex due to

the growth of t he low-cost airline secto r. Given the increa sing level of security

featu res in m odern trave l docum ents a nd str icte r migra tion po licie s in the MS/SAC,

the misus e of genuine tr avel document s is likely to b e an entry me thod that will

become more widespread. Furthermore swift diversif‌ication of modi operandi,

displa cement bet ween rout es or bord er types , and atte mpts to ev ade detec tion

or identif‌icat ion are all possible to occur in re sponse to enhanced borde r checks,

surveillance and migration control. The number of migrants undertaking secondary

movements is thus also expected to rise.

Overall, there is also an underlying threat of terrorism-related movements. Conf‌lict

zones like Syria , Iraq and Libya h ave attract ed thousands of f oreign terror ist

f‌ighters, incl uding EU citizens, dual-national ity holders and other thi rd-country

nationals. Given the loss of ground that Islamist extremists suered in a number

of conf‌lict zones , the threat has evolved into a mor e decentralise d reality that

increases th e risk of terror ists’ moveme nts. The ris k that terroris ts attempt to

cross the ex ternal border illegally re mains.

Ecient border-and migration management must also include appropriate

mechanisms to retu rn Third Country nation als, who do not have a right to st ay.

Although f‌irst successful steps have been undertaken to enhance cooperation

between the n ational authorit ies (responsible for return -decisions) and the Agenc y

(oering pre-return assistance and return-support), further improvements on

the return-rat e (the return of Th ird Country nationals havin g received a return

decision) are needed.

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Implementing Integrated Border Management

atEuropean and National Level

Coordination and Implementation of the Technical and

Operational Strategy for European Integrated Border

Management

Eective implementatio n of TO EIBM at European and national level carries th e

need for ecient coordination to enable the proper exchange of experiences,

best pract ices, arising needs and new deve lopments.

The complemen tarity between t he European and national lev el is to be ensured

via a dedicated fo rum within th e Agency. Acknowl edging that the s cope of

EIBM is wide, cutt ing across the remit of several p olicy areas as well as sever al

authoritie s, there is fur thermore t he need for overa rching steerin g, thus also

complementing already existing foraϸ϶. A best-practice exampl e in this context

are several MS/SAC , who have already insti tutionalised IBM th rough the functio n

of a national IBM coordinator.

In the spirit of shared responsibility of implementing EIBM, in full respect of the

concept of the EBCG and all owing for a struct ured way of coordination a nd review

of the planning, o perationalisation-pro cesses of the TO EIBM both at Europe an

and national lev el, a High Level Integrated Border Management Working

Group (HL IBM WG) shall be e stablished , hosted at the Europ ean Border and

Coast Guard Age ncy – Frontex.

The HL IBM WG shall be w ithout prejudi ce to the upcoming mult i-annual IBM

policy cyc le proposed und er the revised EBCG Re gulation as a com prehensive

governance and advisory mechanism for the ee ctive implementation of the EIBM.

The HL IBM WG shall consi st of a nominated represent ative from each MS/SAC,

who has a senio r role in coordinati ng national IBM, t he European Commission

and the European B order and Coas t Guard Agency – Fro ntex. It shall be co -

chaired by a senior m ember of the European Border an d Coast Guard Agency –

Frontex and a repr esentative from a MS/S AC. Partner agen cies and internation al

stakeholde rs shall be invited when ne eded. The HL IBM WG shall carr y out their

tasks unde r dedicated Terms of Reference to be en dorsed by the MB.

20 e.g. Frontex Risk Analysis Network, Vulnerability Assessment Network, all-in-one meetings and

the Pooled R esources Netw ork